How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #4
I have often noticed that after I had bestowed on the characters of my novels some treasured item of my past, it would pine away in the artificial world where I had so abruptly placed it. Although it lingered on in my mind, its personal warmth, its retrospective appeal had gone and, presently, it became more closely identified with my novel than with my former self, where it had seemed to be so safe from the intrusion of the artist. (5.1.1)
Many writers get their inspiration from events that happen in their own lives. Here, Nabokov is describing the dislocation that happens when doing so. We wonder, does it make the job harder for a novelist-turned-autobiographer, trying to take back all of those memories he gave to fictional characters?
Quote #5
Few things are left, many have been squandered. Have I given away Box I (son and husband of Loulou, the housekeeper's pet), that old brown dachshund fast asleep on the sofa? No, I think he is still mine. [...] He is so old and his sleep is so thickly padded with dreams (about chewable slippers and a few last smells) that he does not stir when faint bells jingle outside. Then a pneumatic door heaves and clangs in the vestibule. She has come after all; I had so hoped she would not. (5.2.3)
In writing fiction, Nabokov worries he has given away too much. Who is "she" in this passage? Who is coming to take away poor old Box the pup?
Quote #6
What bothers me is that a sense of misery, and nothing else, is not enough to make a permanent soul. My enormous and morose Mademoiselle is all right on earth but impossible in eternity. Have I really salvaged her from fiction? (5.7.4)
Nabokov seems to have particular guilt around Mademoiselle when it comes to using her in fiction, and also the way her life turned out. But she doesn't seem much different than other people in his life, so why her?